Good night from...

rc...southern calif., alanta georgia, and florida are considered high theft area so you cant take a load home. the guy who called was most likely the trailer security division in pheonix. not sure how far your house is to the nearest terminal, but you could've dropped it at terminal then gone home. they called me once thinking i took mine home. i was at my fuelstop in hesperia ca and took my ten there since i ran out of hours. i use my moms address as my residence and i was about 20 miles from there. the guy woke my ### up at 10 and had me read a message on qc to prove i was in the truck. my dl been sending messages all month about nottaking loads home

 

You just reminded me, a couple weeks back traffic came to a stop in front of me. Trucks and cars were squeezing thru and I see a Sheriff coming up behind me. I was the last truck to get on thru but this sheriff parked right in front of me jumping out yelling F words at me and to shut my F truck off. He got the scene the way he wanted it and let me go but the trucks on the CB were F Swift this F Swift that lol but they couldn't see what was happening.

Let's see, as last reported was to pick up a load at 1600 (this is before Christmas), load was not ready til midnight. Then it was overweight. So it wasn't ready til the following midnight. Swift rescheduled the load and thereby has denied detention pay

So I made it up to Sacramento, customer asked me to drop it (live unload) Did that and went home for 5 days.
Got a load offer last night 1800 miles so bobtailed down to the terminal to get a trailer and do a 10 hour. This morning I still had an hour to go to finish 10 but was desperate for coffee so dropped trailer and bobtailed out the gate. My ex DM voided my load and gave someone else my trailer. I got the load put back on me and went to pick it up, of course the final address is different than the dispatch. they finally figured out that the customer is right but are not going to pay me the extra 20 miles yay.

Santa Nella CA Houston TX bound

 

Thanks for the heads up, I used Mac34 to ping and make sure my PTA was set appropriately yesterday and today, it kept changing even though I started my belated Christmas home time last night.

Plans changed... yesterday as I was finishing my delivery my DM sent me a message asking if I want to run team dedicated and gave me the name of the driver I'd team with. I talked with him this morning and decided to take the job, starting Friday next week.

The catch is that means I don't want to sit with no income for a whole week (was planning on getting back to work Sunday) and I need to start my reset on Tuesday night....

... so said so sorry to the wife and got right back onto a load headed from San Bernardino to Pueblo tonight.

They should route me right back to Mira Loma by Tuesday night (weather permitting) so I can turn in my truck and get ready to get onto my teammate's truck.

The gig will be LA to East Coast and back, with consistent miles (5500-6000 per week). He's been on the account for 3 years and said he's never had to take slack time OTR.

Now I'll be able to see my wife every week instead of every 4-6 weeks, and make more money and more consistent money. Should be good.

Well, alarm went off, the 30 is up, and the traffic sounds like it is starting to move now...

 

State College, PA. Heading home (Pittsburgh) in the morning.

I went into the office this afternoon to fax in my paperwork, and there was a note on the whiteboard saying if anyone wanted to go OTR for a couple of weeks, talk to the DM.

Sat down with the DM and FM, and said I'd like to go OTR for a bit once the weather gets a bit nicer. I was offered a run to FL, and said I had a friend near Houston that I'd like to visit. So now I'm sitting on a pile of runs that will have me taking a 34 at my friend's place, and then end up in AZ in two weeks.

I was getting a bit tired of I-81/78/76...

 

rightcoast I have been contacted 2 times about taking a load home, first time I was doing a 10 at the truck stop like 4 miles from home....I told him where I was bla bla and he threatened the message thing and I said I wasnt going to send messages all night....never got told anything again on that one, the other was recently when I was supposed to take a load to palmdale then pick up an mt then go home for a 34, mt turned into a sweep but the boss told me go ahead and stop....well next morning I got my phone blowing up and when I didnt answer they started texting me. I had to take the load on in and screw my 34 then work off recaps for the rest of that week.


Sitting in Grenada Hills waiting to be unloaded, I saw they opened the dock door and preparing so shouldnt be too long, I asked if Yussen loads were still slow and the planner told me yeah but he had 1 and 2 planned to cut tonight so I asked for one, he said 2 other drivers turned down getting them. I told him I want the money and I started my clock late so I made sure to have hours for stuff. He said the other guy got worried about me starting my clock late. I told him he needs to relax since I have never been late with Swift and I know how to plan my trips accordingly. He said some OTR drivers they get helping out seems to get loads late at times....I dont see how when the windows are laxed.

He told me going out of my way trying to get extra loads and take the yussens people dont like doing will be good in my favor when/if it comes time to release drivers back OTR for a bit, he said they like to release the lazy ones and keep the performers. I told him as long as they got the loads I never turn it down.

 

I had an interesting moment in Barstow for my first fuel stop from San Bernardino, CA to Pueblo, CO....

... now any quick review of a RM Atlas or look at Google Maps will tell you that the fastest and easiest way to get from SB, CA to P, CO is to head east on I-40 from Barstow then take the I-25 north from Albuquerque. Easy Peasy Nice N Easy... right?

When I started fueling in Barstow I did like i normally do, changing status from Driving to On Duty (Fueling) and then requesting the next fuel stop on Qualcomm's navigation system. I finish fueling, get in the truck, pull forward, do my Mac-11, then look at the next fuel stop and it is...

.... Cedar City, Utah? Say WHAAATTTT??? That's up the I-15.... don't tell me they are routing me over the I-70 to Denver then SOUTH!

So I plug in the final destination and it gets worse...

... it routes me east on I-70, then cuts off to run the US-50 all the way to Pueblo. DOH!

So I park the truck and call dispatch and explain the fastest, most fuel efficient, and safest route is east I-40 then north I-25. NOT to run the US-50 in the dead of winter through the Rockies. Dispatch agreed and said to simply run the I-40 and then ask for a reopt on fuel when I need it.

Dispatcher also noted that QC Navigation seems to have a hard on for running the I-70 or funky mountain routes instead of the easiest and fastest routes in Colorado...

So I started heading east on I-40 and wanted to see how much mileage I saved by heading east versus QC Lady, and it took about 20 miles or so running I-40 before QC Lady finally buckled down and stopped trying to reroute me north to the I-15 and I saved 10 miles...

... but that's saving 10 miles by running east on I-40, cutting north on US-89, then east on US-160.... DOH! QC Lady sure seems to want to put us in harms way.

Bedded down in Kingman AZ at the Flying J... I forgot to note that this is right next to the railroad tracks on one of the busiest sections of track in the Southwest.... DOH!

 

The QC has been very... strange lately in its routing. Something has been updated recently, and there are a few new bugs to be worked out.

I've yet had Dispatch deny a request for a reasonable rerouting. (Like avoiding I-68...)

 

yeah qc has been stupid at times lately, I know whenever I travel the 5 and coming back to the dc it always wants to route me to buttonwillow then east then back up north to get on 7th standard which adds a few miles when you can get right off the 5 straight on to 7th standard then head on in, the other route also has a lot more turns, stop signs and lights etc. Been other times too but that one is the most fresh since it does it every single time.

I know one time in Barstow I got a funky route too when heading to Oregon, forgot what route it wanted me to go but I looked at it and said nooooope, took the 395 and headed up and once rerouted it dropped like a crazy 70 miles from the route the qc tried to get me to go.

 

I know that there's a certain percentage that we are supposed to stay on the chosen course from QC, I think we are allowed up to 16% off route on average. On this particular trip I'll be over 90% off route, but at least I have my behind covered with QC messages.

My second trip solo was a doozy. Running from Longmont, CO to Logan the way I would like to go would be west on I-80, catch the I-84 to the I-15, then take US-89 northeast to Logan. QC routed me from Little America, WY north on US-30, then caught US-89 up and over a horrendous route with 7% grades, suggested speeds as low as 15 mph on corners, through a canyon filled with non-stop camping spots.

When I had my review as I was preparing to graduate from my newbie DM she noted I'd been out of route a tad over the allowed percentage and I would have to get that number down. About a month later I got routed through Yellowstone National Park on a truck restricted road. I ended up messaging dispatch as I was approaching the turn off of I-90 that would commit me to the restricted route (which would mean I would have had to backtrack many miles once I reached the "No Trucks" sign). I took a 30 minute break and didn't hear anything. Finally I messaged them that I was taking another route. About an hour into that I got a message back saying I had to turn around and take the original route!!! I then called dispatch and had a long conversation verging on an argument that the original route was illegal. Finally they agreed and "let me" take the legal route.

Bottom line is always trip plan and double check the route that QC takes you and make sure it is the fastest, safest, legal, and most fuel efficient route. If it isn't, then message the planners and advise them you are taking an alternative that is better. Then reopt your fuel plan if the route is long.

I had another load back in the summer, picking up in Louisiana, headed to Illinois. The fuel route took me south to stop at a horrible little Pilot on I-10 that I ended up bypassing anyway because the lines to the pumps were backed up onto the road. That ended up adding 70 miles to the journey. I had enough fuel to head northeast to catch I-55 and could have reoptimized fuel somewhere in Jackson.

 

That's a gorgeous drive ... Did you stop at the rest stop at the top of the grade and take in the view of Bear Lake? That drive is right up there with US 50 in Nevada for scenery and views ... and like 50 you do it once and never do it again.